It’s official, I’m a water genius. I had a hard time with the question on the lawn mower, but other than that, I scored a near perfect 11/12, which means I have a water IQ of 165. That’s certifiable water genius status. I’m joking a little, but water is a serious thing. Growing up, I used to think water was free, but the reality is all too different. If you’ve ever read the book Dune, by Frank Herbert, you can imagine how life is with a water shortage. By the way, I don’t think I could wear one of those suits! Anyway, I live in Texas because it’s big and has many things in abundance, but we need to keep it that way…let’s get serious about our water supply and act collectively.

There’s something easy that we can all do: go to www.waterIQ.org, take the Water IQ quiz and make the water IQ pledge. By doing so, you pledge to reduce water consumption by 5%, water your lawn only once per week, fix all leaks, raise the blade on your lawn mower to 3 inches, operate your sprinkler system manually, and forgo watering from 10 a.m to 6 p.m. These are simple, but necessary, steps to take. Our individual pledge, when combined with the collective efforts of other Texans, will help to keep water available in drought or sans drought. It’s the least we can do.